New Catholic Times

The Eagles

Good ol' boys down at the bar
Peanuts and politics
They think they know it all
They don't know much of nothing
Even if one of them was to read the newspaper
Cover-to-cover
That ain't what's going on
Journalism's dead and gone
Frail grasp on the big picture

The Eagles

So many words have been spilled over the Haitian catastrophe. The most important one shas been compassion and solidarity with suffering humanity, the overwhelming response to a natural disaster of biblical proportions. Almost every segment of society has responded with immediacy and concern---business, education, the arts, church agencies and just ordinary citizens.You name them and they have acted with deep generosity, a fact which the human community can take comfort in. People's basic instincts are good. We need to be reminded of this each time cynicism invades our collective psyches.

However it did take the media about a week to shine a deeper light on Haiti and its tangled history. As Canadian Haiti Solidarity Activist Yves Engler aptly phrased it "They repeatedly state that the government was completely unprepared to deal with the crisis.This is true. But they left out why."

"The why" would take us to long to articulate in an editorial but in broad strokes we can say this.

Haiti achieved independence from Napoleonic France in 1804, a black republic unique in the western world. The young American government in 1823 proclaimed the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 to basically tell the great imperial power Great Britian and in fact all of Europe to stay out of the Americas. Along with France the US began its historic embargo of the island. There can be no doubt that race was a crucial factor here. Recall that the United States was struggling to cope with slavery within its own boundaries. To see a country like Haiti born of a slave revolt succeed would be too much.

The Monroe Doctrine was consistently updated in the early 20th century to justify embargo and invasion. President Woodrow Wilson sent troops in 1915. They stayed for 20 years and basically ran the country. This however was a mere prelude to imperial control. What really spooked the US governmemt was the Cuban Revolution of the late 50s. "Soviet backed communism, a beach head in the Americas was being established" was the Cold War narrative. And then came the Duvaliers. From 1957 to 1986 "Papa Doc" and "Baby Doc" Duvalier, American surrogates ("sons of bitches---but they are ours" as FDR styled another dictator, Somoza of Nicaragua) ruled Haiti with iron fists and murdered with impunity. Human rights vanished so that there would not be another Cuba.The Duvaliers bankrupted and ran up huge debts for the people.

Neoliberal victim

Haiti pried open by neoliberal ideology was flooded by cheaper US imports like rice and sugar thereby destroying local agriculture. The poor flocked to the cities where they were forced to engage in sweat shop labour for US corporations like Disney. The peasants deforested the land for fuel and became victims of flooding and tropical storms.

Hope arrived in the guise of the liberationist priest Aristide---a threat to the wealthy and the blinkered imperial world of Reagan/Bush.The wildly popular Aristide, supported in elections by 80% of the people, placed the poor at the heart of his economic programme. The ruling elite backed by the US government turned the death squads loose and Aristide was deposed with the complicity of Canada and France. Canada's participation in deposing Aristide, imposing neoloberal policies and marching lockstep with the US was shocking to say the least and largely out of sight of Canadians( see Antony Fenton's Canada and Haiti).A puppet government of Gerard Latortue was imposed to keep the people in bondage, in this case, massive sweat shops working for US corporations.

Haiti survives barely.Half the population lives on .50 cents a day. The sweatshops pay from $2-3 dollars per day. So much for the successful neoliberal policies.

Since Aristide's exile, UN forces under Brazilian leadership has served the role of taming the population. Basically their role is to protect the rich and shut down the popular Lavalas movement of Aristide.

In 2004 there was a hurricane which killed 2000 in the Gonaives area. Another natural disaster, a curse on Haiti, more bad luck? Hardly Cuba lost only four in the same hurricane. Deforestation, lack of government building codes did the job.

Yves Engler has summed up Haiti's sad history:

"Technically "independent" for more than two centuries, outsiders have long shaped the country's affairs. Through isolation, economic asphyxiation, debt dependence, gunboat diplomacy, occupation, foreign supported dictatorships, structural adjustment programs and "democracy promotion" Haiti is no stranger to the various forms of foreign political manipulation."

Canadians have responded generously to Haiti's plight but we take seriously Engler's and others concerns about the power of NGOs there. He maintains Haitians have been quite critical of these institutions because they gut the power of the central government---seemingly missing in action in this latest catastrophe. Haiti remains the NGO capital of the world.

Be very wary of any description of Haiti as cursed,(France's Sarkozy) illiterate, victim of bad luck, a failed state. Haiti has been victimized. France and the US owe it billions of dollars in reparations.

As we write 20,000 US troops will be landing to continue the occupation. Independent observers reported the palpable anger of aid distributors and wounded and hungry Haitians who were forced to wait while the US military obsessed with control and security stalled humanitarian efforts

Canadian troops,uniquely suitable by geography, language and peacemaking history sadly will be 15,000 miles away in Afghanistan, stalled in an unwinnable war, a sop to American geopolitical games and a Prime Minister out of touh with Canadian history and traditions .

Books to read:

Peter Hallward Damning the Flood

Canada and Haiti Anthony Fenton